Here's a quick update to the Lollipop Art Project post below:

As explained in the blog post, the lollipop project came about as a means of turning an old print block tray acquired by one of our team leaders into a display cabinet for the Aardman studio, and now it makes me proud to be able to show that cabinet, and my little helicopter, in all its glory.
Many thanks to my friend Kelly, who's currently working at Aardman Animations on the forthcoming series of Shaun the Sheep, for taking these photos.

 
Here's a cute one to start with:

"Make something using nothing more than one lollipop stick and two cocktail sticks. One small item may also be used as optional embellishment. Can be painted or coloured if desired. Oh, and it has to fit into a space no bigger than 5cm wide, 4cm high and 2cm deep!!!"

This was the simple but effective challenge thrown down by one of the puppet department team leaders at Aardman Animations as a purely-for-fun lunchtime project.

He had bought an old print block tray and wanted to turn it into a display cabinet for the Aardman studio. One quirky challenge later and half the puppet department were turning their talents to all manner of brilliant art pieces to fill it with.

The project offered a creative freedom that I couldn't resist, and I got so into spending my lunchtimes sanding tiny bits of wood (as well as developing what would eventually become RazarHawk, which Dani and I were working on at the same time) that I neglected to put any real effort into a potentially more glorious opportunity - sculpting a character for the very film that had brought us to Aardman in the first place: The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists

Nonetheless I love this little helicopter, in fact it's a feature of my current professional curriculum vitae, and I couldn't be more proud to have it on display in the Aardman studio…!!!

IAN


p.s. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the cabinet on display, but someone must. If I can track one down, you can be sure that I'll post it here. [edit: see blog post 'Lollipop Update' above]